Many colored surfaces, e.g., exterior paneling of automobiles, include gonioapparent pigments which impact the surface's color and appearance. These pigments may include, but are certainly not limited to, flakes formed from metals, silica, pearlescent pigments, and/or interference pigments. As a result of these pigments, gonioapparent colored surfaces have colors and spatial appearances that vary as with changes in the amount of illumination (i.e., the amount of light on the surface), viewing geometries (i.e., the angle of viewing the surface), and/or illumination geometries. An important aspect of spatial appearance is “sparkle” and how it changes with changing illumination and viewing geometries.
When attempting to match a pair of colored surfaces, for example, when attempting to find a matching paint formula to repaint a portion of an automobile, the presence of gonioapparent pigments adds a high degree of complexity to the process. Attempts to match gonioapprent colored surfaces often require human inspection, which can be quite subjective and often prone to error.
As such, it is desirable to present a method and system which provides a reliable process for matching gionioapparent colored surfaces, with higher precision than is found with human inspection. In addition, other desirable features and characteristics will become apparent from the subsequent summary and detailed description, and the appended claims, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings and this background.